“No one in their right mind would want to put the Orihuela City Council at risk or mortgage it for a decision that cannot be legally upheld. None of the threats made to me by the company’s lawyer have anything to do with this decision.”
Carolina Gracia – Mayor of Orihuela
As Mayor Carolina Gracia admits that she cannot stop construction of 2,200 tourist properties on Cala Mosca, next Tuesday will see the Orihuela Government approve the modification of the urbanisation project, Alameda del Mar, which will give builder, Gomiendo, the approval he needs to saturate the last remaining unspoilt kilometre of Orihuela Costa coastline with concrete.
As such, the summer of 2023 may be the last that we see for some while, of the crags of Cala la Mosca without tower cranes.
The mayoress made the announcement at a press conference on Friday which, unusually, was held without the Town Planning Councillor and her coalition partner, José Aix (Cs), sitting at her right hand.
She has admitted that with the approval of the technical reports she cannot prevent the company going ahead with the project and, immediately afterwards, distanced the decision from the threats and pressure that she has received from the promoter’s lawyer, Gomendio.
Cambiemos Councillor, Karlos BernabéMar, called her a coward, saying that “she has continually ignored all of the manoeuvring that her partners (or perhaps her bosses) of Cs, have carried out over many months, to accelerate and strengthen the interests of the promoter.”
He then went on in his message, directly accusing the councillor José Aix of “working” for the promoter and “lying” and the mayoress of passivity to avoid action and protect the space classified as urban since 1990, and that the Generalitat tried unsuccessfully to protect in the Territorial Plan of Coastal Green Infrastructures (Pativel).
However, Gracia has said that the report requested from the secretary just two weeks ago has been favourable so, with this, she cannot refuse to recommend the project to the governing board for approval, even though she disagrees with it.
Gracia confirmed that her party does not support the construction of these homes on the Oriolan coast, but that she cannot keep the project in a drawer because “the City Council would incur patrimonial responsibility which could cost the city many millions of euros. It is what she called a regulated imposition.
She confirmed that she has tried to provide alternatives to the company to paralyse the project, but that once they had the approval of the Ministry, the company insisted on carrying it out, without considering alternatives. The mayoress was adamant that Gomendio’s pressure did not stop when he made it public, although she has not given in to them, but now that all the necessary reports have been received, the project must be put in front of the full council.
